Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Women in Prison are good. Y'know how Career Suicide plays hardcore with garage rock influences? Same sort of deal here. Whereas Career Suicide has that sort of snotty '77 vibe at times, Women in Prison has this early Texas hardcore weird kid thing going for them. Think The Dicks or Bobby Soxx. Or even some Flipper or Church Police in the vocals. And to add to this review via long list of other band names, members have been in The Functional Blackouts, The Young, and Total Abuse.

Friday, August 26, 2011

This continues where Underground Railroad to Candyland's first album, Bird Roughs left off, continuing with their San Pedro, CA surf punk. Todd Conge's song writing style is pretty unmistakable. All of his bands, Toys That Kill, F.Y.P., Stoned At Heart, his solo work, and Underground, have differences, but you can hear the musical brain behind all of them. Out of all of these, it's closest to his solo albums, but with a more filled out sound. There are some instrumentals like "Animals! Run!," "2010," and the Link Wray cover "Run Chicken Run," but I was thinking more vocal surf rock. Think less Dick Dale and more Beach Boys or Jan & Dean. Especially think of the Beach Boys after Brian Wilson took acid. The harmonies and strange little flourishes bring to mind albums like Pet Sounds and Smile.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Maybe it's the return of Beavis & Butthead. Maybe it's the utter fucked upness of the world. Or maybe it's all of these planets and stars aligning. Whatever it is, here's another scummy drug punk record to review. These guys are from Alabama and as their song title "Alabama's Doomed" would imply, I guess they have some complex feelings about this. Scummy drug punk. I just wanted to type that again, because that's what this sounds like. And while I'm restating things that describe their sound, Alabama. I wouldn't say they're southern rock by any stretch, you can kinda tell that these guys definitely absorbed the sounds of their surroundings while growing up. So when they're playing their Crime-esque punk, some Southernisms can't help but slip into there. And I just now realized "Alabama's Doomed" is probably a reference to Crime's "San Francisco's Doomed."

I don't like the song "Chrome Intensifier" or "Excavate Heaven," though. Dude, I get it. You're fucked up. If you're going play all slow and psych-ish, at least do something interesting with it. Some of the other slow songs fair better, though. For instance, "Pterodactyl Meltdown" or "No Mongo." These manage to keep interest and momentum better. Kinda.

When I first of the band name GG King I was like, "Oh, man. That's so stupid," thinking it was a reference to GG Allin and, I dunno, Elvis or somethin'. Then I thought about just how stupid it was and what type of stupid it was. Then I thought, "I bet I'll like this." And I do. Finding out Greg King of the Carbonas was behind this didn't hurt, either. This is also, I'm assuming where the name GG King comes from and not some punks attempting to be snotty ala Elvis Hitler.

This whole thing sounds like any fake band from any number of late 70's tv shows or movies, but with a pop genius writing their songs. This is meant as a compliment.

Just like The Reatards took their basic formula of the Oblivians and put their own spin on it, the Useless Eaters are the next in the line of the string of Memphis bands. And just like the Oblivians to Reatards evolution, this next step also shakes off some of the blues tendencies of the previous generation, leaving behind refined three chord punk rock. I don't mean refined as in a British lady's tea party, either. There's a Buzzcocks feel to their leads and some of Seth Sutton's vocals. So, maybe it is in a British lady's tea party way. All this aside, their myspace lists this as their influences: